Congratulations on choosing a media professional for your wedding! Whether that professional is me or another talented producer, finalizing your media coverage is both big step and a heavy weight off your shoulders.

In preparing for the wedding, you and your photographer should be on the same page regarding times, locations, and expectations. While there are literally hundreds of factors to consider, I'm going to keep it simple here by listing what I feel are the most important understandings and why.

The Photographer-Client Checklist

☐ The Contract

☐ Schedule of the Day

☐ Shot List

☐ Planner-Contact Information

The Contract

For big days such as yours, contracts are an absolutemust. Contracts outline critical points such as the parties involved, payment, liability, and expectations regarding deliverables. More thorough contracts can cover discussions regarding resolutions, food, travel costs, and what happens if someone backs out last minute.

It is normally up to your photographer to discuss the terms of service, but if your media provider is just starting out, encourage them to consult a legal expert or research an already existing template and carefully build one from there.

The topic of contracts deserve an article on its own but in the spirit of keeping this article brief, I'll reiterate the starting point—you and your photographer need a contract!

The Schedule

At its core, wedding days are grand stage productions with cues, lines, and responsibilities. The schedules are like scripts—they ensure that you and your photographer are on the same page and at the same times.

Schedules can take many forms and can be as simple or as complex as needed.

Above: Example of a very simple wedding schedule.

In its most basic form, your schedule should note essential events like the dress prep, ceremony and the reception.

Above: Example of a more complex photo schedule.

More thorough schedules factor in dedicated photo sessions such as first looks, family photos, and the lovely couple in a quiet moment together. This is especially helpful if the wedding day encompasses many different festivities.

With the beauty of today's technology, I find that creating an active Google Sheet/Excel document between photographer, couple, and, if applicable planner, can help all parties establish a clear vision for the day. Laying out times can also help your photographer optimize his/her coverage or point out conflicting time blocks.

When drafting, make sure the schedules outline both times and specific locations. If your locations are spaced far from each other, please allot appropriate times for all parties to commute. If your photographer is shooting alone (i.e. without assistance), take into consideration optimal ways he/she can cover both sides of the bridal party and when precisely to do so.

Shot List

Like schedules, shot lists inform your photographer on what moments he/she needs to capture throughout the day.

Above: A full family session shot list.

Shot lists can be tailored according to your artistic tastes. In my experience, shorter shot lists are generally preferred. Avoid complex, 100+ item shot lists—they will make most photographers' heads implode and convey to your photographer that you do not trust him/her to do their job well.

Seasoned photographers will have an intuitive sense of what to capture and should be entrusted as such to do so—for better or worse.

The most imperative shot lists will detail familys hots—from your parents to extended families, to travelling aunties, long lost uncles, and cousins you have forgotten existed. Additionally, a more detailed shot list should include wild moments like flash dances, surprise family cameos, and very specific, culturally unique traditions of which your photographer may not be informed.

If you have specific poses you'd like or Pinterest samples you'd like to emulate, feel free to share them with your photographer! Some artists are more controlling in their vision but if your photographer is open to collaboration (I'm cool with it!) the sky is the limit.

Planner-Contact Information

I highly recommend ALL couples enlist a planner for their wedding. A wedding planner is your wedding's alarm clock—you may not like the constant buzzing but, holy cow, will they keep you on track. A good planner will be your informal wedding therapist, cell phone holder, and will sneak you food when you two have forgotten to eat through the wedding festivities.

If you have any inclination to plan your own wedding independently—I would highly advise against it. I've seen far too many brides and grooms burn themselves out trying to sort out every little detail. As a photographer, it's upsetting to see a couple not enjoy their own big day because they're too stressed out delegating.

If you understandably cannot afford a planner for the day, consider enlisting a friend or someone in the bridal party with an A-type personality to keep the schedule moving smoothly. Regardless of what you choose, ensure that your photographer has the contact information of you, your partner, and the planner-in-name so that they may get in touch with you immediately if a certain plan goes awry.

Getting Ready for the Big Day

After squaring the above details, you and your photographer should on your way to the big day! Keep in touch with your photographer via your preferred contact methods and ensure they've acquired any last minute scheduling changes. Calling the week or day before can also help the both of you rehearse the schedule one last time remotely.

The night before, make sure to get plenty of sleep (this may be difficult) and drink lots of water (much easier) to keep your skin hydrated and smooth for the photos.

Lastly: have faith in your photographer! Most photographers are self-sufficient creatures and can thrive in the wilderness that is a hectic wedding schedule. Trust your photographer to get the motions right.

With thorough planning, everyone will be on track to craft beautiful memories together.

It is November and I am standing in a hallowed garden in a museum building in an art exhibit honoring the life's work of a brilliant man who will leave this earth the following April.

Michael Graves. Photo Credit: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

The place is Grounds for Sculpture and his name is Michael Graves. You probably don't know him but he is an architect and who has designed marvels like the Team Disney Building in California and the NCAA Hall of Champions.

He was a brilliant mind, his design philosophy playing hopscotch along the beautiful seams of art-deco and the shoes of postmodern fit. His creations were bold and curvy and complex and all sorts of sexy if sexy and lines had equitable real estate. In fashion-speak, he was a stylist of space. A haidresser of geometry. The make-up artist of land.

Crooks House | Fort Wayne, Indiana

And he is still alive when I am there, singing through the lines of his art.

Fast forward two minutes later, and I am walking through a gallery of his most notable works, the Sparknotes blurb of his prolific career. The columns are lined with elegant portraits and spotted lights, photos of his blueprints and end works. The blueprints are faded photographs and his blueprints are illegible to my non-mathematical brain and I do not think these do him justice but as a fellow artist I know these are the only ways to celebrate a person who has toiled hours in dim lighting on sharpened pencils, spilling out the guts of imagination on a piece of paper that will find its way into two-hundred other hands and their cranes and steel monster, into places that would look like bustling ant colonies if you could zoom out a few 100 meters.

Michael Graves, Disney Swan Hotel

And yet, the heart is still there and the arteries somewhere in translation, between time and space and cracks only God can see through.

On the wall, they hang. Blueprints and drawings. Drawings and buildings. Drawings and then buildings. The juxtaposition is jostling. Time does not exist in this exhibit because it is impossible to celebrate the thens and soon-to-be-thens while standing in the now celebrating the life of a man who kind of looked like Bill Gates in his youth and Mr. Burns of Simpsons fame in his twilight.

Fast-forward a second from now.

And for a second, his works look like colonies and I find myself at the "Make Your Own Architecture!" section of the exhibit sponsored by the one and only LEGO company. I am ungrounded, lost in childhood splendor that is a pile of Legos and pillars of protruding circles, as if the museums screams to me "Now here's your chance to be Michael Graves!" or someone close to him (just not as talented or as imaginative as he is).

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

And craft I do. As a child of the 90s, I love Legos because their existence represents what I love most about people is the will to create in a world engrossed by rampant consumption. It is easy enough to sit on your ass and play critic to everyone's work but to openly contribute something to the world is what I believe to be the highest form of art.

But I dismiss those thoughts. The clanking of plastic makes me smile, makes me reminisce about days before Minecraft existed when a lack of technology forced you to whine at your parents and make them buy LEGOs because you couldn't make stuff digitally and you were a broke five year old who hadn't yet discovered brand name clothing and social media. And when they did buy you a LEGO package, the finite number of pieces and 2x2 blocks forced you to shape little worlds (quite literally) with childish ingenuity and bravery. Those were sentimental days, when digital likes didn't matter because it was pleasure enough to make things for the sake of creation itself, not to impress or influence or wage numbers but for the sheer pride of saying "I made this with my own two hands. I made this damn crooked thing with a smile. I made it with pride." Because ownership—that is the crux of legacy, the footprint that other people will remember about you when all of your body has perished.

Your museum.

Michael Graves | Denver Central Library

And my mind wanders in this Michael Graces exhibit. Makes me realize that I suck as a Catholic because I'm not at all humble and I'm damn well not conservative but I believe everyone was meant to be this powerful, was meant to shape worlds within worlds. Because we were not meant to be servants but creatures of our own destiny. Magistrates of Creation. Of Construction.

Architects of our own lives.

I'm not a god but I sometimes feel art is the closest to one I will ever be. This. Playing Legos in a room next to pictures of buildings that both time and love built.

Don’t make something you are not going to be proud of in your lifetime, let alone 100 years from now. Don’t build for the moment…make a classic.

I was a 22 year old college undergrad with zero career prospects, no car, and two parakeets I literally couldn't afford to feed. I was surviving on two tablespoons of peanut butter for breakfast and for dinner, ramen infused with tuna chunks and soy sauce.

It wasn't a very glamourous lifestyle. I wasn't doing too well financially and the $6.75/hr job I had at the bookstore didn't exactly afford me good wiggle room for monthly groceries (which I needed) and the Ferrari I've always wanted (but didn't need).

Why ask for a camera when my food pantry was empty? I'm not exactly sure.

I got my first camera in 2010. A wonderful friend bought it for me because I had kept complaining about how expensive these damn cameras were and she wanted me to stop complaining.

The camera she got me was the Nikon D80, which was good enough for sunshine and trees but not good enough for...well, candles and bees, if that makes sense. It didn't handle low light situations well and focusing on that thing made my head explode.

Still lost? Here's a better analogy: the D80 is a water gun in a room of rocket launchers and anthrax.

HOWEVER, Wesker (aka my D80) was my first camera and a divine creed from the art gods to make things, to make the art I had constantly seen in my own head yet had not the resources to do so.

Most of my first shots were in the spirit of good fun and curiosity. I hadn't really thought of becoming a professional until the actual inquiries started coming in. "Hey dude! Nice camera! Can you shoot my party!?" "Hello friend! Do you do headshots?"

The post-grad failure in me finally felt needed. Valued.

And so, with little to no business skills starting out, I fumbled most of my gigs terribly. The first prospective wedding client who came to me asked if I could shoot "lowlight." Meaning, did I have the pro-level gear needed to shoot in places like churches or receptions halls.

Fearing that I didn't have the capabilities nor equipment to shoot in dark places like churches and weddings, I remember dodging the question entirely with a surprisingly stupid response. It went something like:

"Yes, I mean, if you're asking if I can still take pictures in the dark, then yes, my camera can do that. It's battery powered, not solar-powered, sir."

At the time, I hadn't yet solidified my business model nor attracted the stream of clients needed to run a media operation safely. I still hadn't found work, or at least good-enough work to both cover student loan payments and general amenities, so with no credit and no money to further upgrade, I did what any stubborn artist would do.

I made my own gear.

Here's the makeshift light I made out of PVC pipes and light bulbs from Home Depot.

Here's that lamp in action.

Here's BOTH me AND that lamp in action.

My good friend and colleague Adrian is holding a bootleg color checker I printed out for my first several shoots in the field.

Yes, it worked.

And these are pictures of my friends wearing cereal boxes on their heads.

Don't ask.

It's been about five years since I picked up my first camera. I still look back fondly at these days because they were formative learning experiences in both learning good technique and just getting out there to shoot. The same curiosity I had early on is still alive, flowing through these veins like electricity through wire.

Safe to say, I don't build rigs with PVC pipes anymore and I've long since upgraded my camera and lenses, but I'm forever humbled by the journey that has gotten me to where I am. I haven't forgotten how hard I've worked to get here, and I know there's more work to be done for as long as I keep making things.

Pictured: The ever so talented graphic artist Aishazamm and, right Annpanic to whom I owe my gateway drug into the art high.

This post is dedicated to the friends who have helped me endure the growing pains of learning a new craft.

To the colleagues who have lent me equipment time and again, to the fans who have believed in my crazy visions since day one.

To the haters who said "I couldn't take a good picture" when I first started out... you were actually right. Thank you for the constructive criticism.

But most importantly, this inaugural post is dedicated to the dreamers who love to make things but don't think they have the means to do so. Because, spoiler alert: you do.